The gods are human

Dana Milbank, one of the WaPo’s progressive columnists, writes in public – the written equivalent of saying aloud – a truth that must be written because it is so obvious that many failed to notice and continue to fail to believe it: “The demigod turned out to be entirely human, and his results were disappointing.”

The demigod to which he refers is BO. From the mantras of “hope” and “change” the nation’s would-be savior has a new mantra, “I’m begging you to give me four more years of the same.”

It’s really too bad that BO didn’t speak on a stage fit for gods as he did four years ago at Invseco Field, because as the mortal Paul Ryan put it: “If borrowing and spending and regulating and taxing was the secret to economic success, we would be entering a golden age along with Greece”.

Indeed, we’re fast become Greeks.

Why do we deify leaders who always fail to live up to our expectations? They are human. They must fail when placed in the position of gods. They cannot part the seas. They cannot create mountains. And that’s a good thing, because they’d get it wrong. Maybe not for themselves or their devoted followers. But they’d get it wrong for everybody else. They’d get it wrong for the minority. They’d get it wrong for those who don’t believe. “Democracy” as it was understood in 1776 is not about majority rule. It is about limited government. It is about ensuring that the non-believing minority can live in peace, free of the tyranny of the majority. It is about never being led by kings or gods.